Why is it German and not British towels covering the sun-loungers of Europe?

Fancy two weeks in Spain, France, Greece, Portugal or Italy? No problem if you're Deutsch

© Facts4EU.Org 2021

For Germans, the Covid holiday war is over - a Facts4EU.Org Covid travel report

Yesterday the German government updated its travel advice again, placing yet more countries on its already long list of popular holiday destinations. Germans can now take their summer holidays in almost all the most popular resorts in Europe – and many more beyond.

[Please note: Facts4EU.Org analysed the latest information from the official German government websites on Friday 18 June 2021. What follows applies to people resident in Germany, not to German nationals living in the UK. Further, German residents should of course always consult the official German government websites, as the rules change regularly.]

Fancy a couple of weeks in the sun on the Costa Brava? The South of France?

What about the Italian Riviera? Tuscany? The Algarve? Athens or the Greek islands? All are possible if you are German. All you need is one negative test and to register online before you return. No requirement to be quarantined, no need to ‘self-isolate’, no need for multiple tests.

Sadly though, the beaches of Devon and Cornwall are off limits, as the UK is on the list of ‘high risk’ destinations for Germans.

It is perhaps no wonder that the German tabloids have started gently (or in some cases not so gently) mocking the Brits for being effectively imprisoned in their own country while millions of German holidaymakers make hay while the sun shines. To use the old cliché, German towels can now cover the sunloungers of Europe from dawn, with relative impunity.

And where can you holiday if you’re British?

How about two weeks on the sunny beaches of Iceland? Or maybe the Falklands or the Faroe Islands?

The UK’s official ‘Green List’ even contains countries which will not accept British holidaymakers. The full list is Australia, Brunei, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Iceland, Israel and Jerusalem, New Zealand, Singapore, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.

No Spain, no Greece, no France, no Portugal, no Italy. None of the normal destinations which usually attract hundreds of thousands of Brits each year, seeking their moment in the sun.

The UK Government website continues to say “You should not travel to amber list or red list countries or territories.” This means pretty much anywhere that might be a normal holiday destination.

And fnally, the latest Covid statistics for the UK and for Germany

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Latest Covid statistics for UK and Germany
(As at 17 June 2021 for Germany, as at 16 June for UK)

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org - click to enlarge

7-day rolling average of daily deaths

  • 11 UK deaths
  • 83 German deaths

Percentage of total population with at least one vaccine dose

  • UK : 62.2%
  • Germany : 49.7%

Percentage of total population fully vaccinated

  • UK : 45.2%
  • Germany : 29.4%

Observations

The UK has blitzed the EU27 countries with the success of its vaccine rollout. (In the context of this report we are not covering the increasing concerns about the safety of vaccinations, so if you comment please stay on topic.)

Despite the UK’s roaring success, the country remains locked down. The comparison we have shown above between the holiday choices for millions of Germans and millions of British people are stark. Germans can take their summer holidays pretty much as usual, except for a single Covid test before they return to Germany.

Even if Germans return from an amber list country, they can be released from the requirement to self-isolate after just five days if they get a negative test at that point.

Similarly we have shown the latest official figures for deaths and vaccinations, which put the UK as a far safer place from which to depart and to return. We are not anti-German of course, and we hope our German friends will forgive the reference to towels and sunloungers. The simple fact is that they are starting to take a lead in rational responses to Covid.

We feel obliged to ask a simple question

What on earth is the Government playing at? Holidays abroad are just one indication of the madness of the SAGE / ‘following the science’ / ‘data-driven’ fiasco we have all had to endure for the last 15 months. We can’t think of a single forecast – “you’re all going to die if we don’t do this” - that has been remotely accurate. Life must now return to normal.

Despite the nonsense delivered by Chris Whitty in his truly atrocious slides on Monday at the press conference with the Prime Minister, deaths ‘with Covid’ are so low as to be an almost meaningless statistic in terms of the number of daily deaths from all causes in the UK. Each one tragic for all concerned, of course, but statistically insignificant in national terms.

The rest of Europe is opening up. The Covid leader in vaccinations – the UK – is rapidly becoming the European laggard. The Government must now get a grip.

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It has always been everyday people like you who made it possible for Facts4EU.Org to exist and to provide this service. We present facts-based research that most of the MSM fails to provide, and through that give a voice to a more common-sense approach that is shared and sought by so many people, still not being heard as it often differs from the 'party line' or 'right thing to say'.

Yes, you can do something and we hope you will. Please help us out with a donation today, so we can keep fighting for a free, truly independent, and sovereign United Kingdom and research and publish facts presented in a way you won't see anywhere else.

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[ Sources: Bundesministerium für Gesundheit | Auswärtiges Amt | Bundesministerium des Innern, für Bau und Heimat | Das Robert Koch-Institut | Johns Hopkins Univ / Our World in Data | UK Government travel advice ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sat 19 Jun 2021

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